Wincing, Mei pulled the splinters out of her fingers...

Terrible... She didn't even know it was possible to get splinters from a twig.

She swept the disintegrated twig into the corner of the room, before heading out. Yeah... she was just going to leave that to the cleaner spirits while she was gone.

In a few minutes, the wounds closed up. Vital Body sure was handy...

"Sssss!"

Yang Ning's snake hissed at her as she approached.

Wordlessly, the shopkeeper took a jar of candy from a shelf, sliding it over the counter.

Mei: ...

Sensing her reaction, he took out a fancy looking box from his storage bag and place it on the table. "Fruit Candy" the label read, with images of expensive-looking candy on it.

"20 Jade."

"Um, I'm not here to buy candy today..."

"Big shocker." Yang Ning said, putting it away. "What is it then?"

Somehow, Mei felt a little insulted.

"Well, after I broke through to Foundational, I found my skin lost most of its tanning. Do you have anything that can help?"

After heading out of her room to find something to do, looking for a product that could help was the first thing that came to mind. With how diverse cultivation magic is, she figured they might be able to do something.

"Does this look like some kind of beauty salon to you? Of course I don't."

"Then do you know anywhere that sells stuff like that?"

Yang Ning took out a jade slip from his storage bag.

"This is the latest model of mapping jades. Not only does it have the entire sect's layout installed, but it can also create maps of new places you go to outside the sect, and it can be updated to reflect new buildings in the sect."

As he spoke, he tapped on it, creating a vivid image of the sect's map, covered with countless markers detailing all the amenities.

"Oooo!"

So he was trying to sell her a map that could show her where all the shops were. It wasn't what she came for, but it seemed pretty amazing!

"Only 200 jade."

"That's too expensive!"

"Didn't the sect lend you outer disciples a lot of jade recently? You can easily afford it."

"No way!"

"Maps like this are absolutely essential. You're going to have to buy one eventually, so why not buy it now?"

Mei reached into her bag, taking out the Qiulan jade slip.

"I have this..."

Yang Ning paused.

"You do realise you're supposed to return it after gathering the herbs? And a very outdated model too. What you're seeing there is the layout of the sect 50 years ago."

"That's fine by me..."

With how long cultivators lived, she figured most of the stores would still be standing.

"I'll welcome you with open arms the day your slip gets confiscated by the elders and you need a new map."

Grrr...

"So can you tell me where to look for something that can help?"

"I'm a businessman. Buy something first."

"Fine! I'll just take the usual," she said, plopping 5 jade on the table.

Yang Ning smirked as he slid the jar of candy back over.

A massive white building towered over her, from the looks of it, at least 10 stories high. Its width was nothing to sneeze at either, at least a few hundred metres wide.

"Million Assortments Artifact General Store" was on a massive shiny red metal sign, almost too bright to look at under the hot sun.

Picking one of the entrances and pushing open the glass doors, a wave of cold air brushed past her. Inside, there were many counters, each manned by a cultivator. Disciples milled around, talking to people at each counter.

Mei queued up in what seemed to be the shortest queue, run by a gruff looking man.

As she waited, she found to her dismay that some of the longer queues were going by much faster... the customers in front of her seemed to be taking their sweet time. For a moment, she was tempted to switch, but there were less than 10 people left in her queue.

Finally...

"Welcome, valued customer. Do you have what you want in mind, or would you rather browse our collection upstairs?"

Browsing... Mei didn't think she'd be able to find something that specific on her own.

She explained what she was looking for to the man.

"Interesting. We don't have many customers that ask for products like that. Especially girls. You're not pleased by your fairer skin after the breakthrough? It's usually men trying to show off how tough they are that look for such things."

Mei: ...

For a person working for customer service, he sure was insensitive.

Seeing that she didn't respond, the man coughed awkwardly.

"I'll arrange an appointment with one of our talisman masters."

Mei shifted uncomfortably in her seat. A very tall man with 4 arms sat before her, towering over her wearing scholarly robes. Where his skin was exposed, she could see runic marks all over them, like strange tattoos.

Was that one of the fabled asuras? To think she'd see one here of all places. From the looks of it, he was nearly 2 metres tall.

On the table between them, a little prop had his name written on it: Si Yuan.

"I have been informed of what you are looking for. You want a way to tan your skin again, yes?" the man said.

"Yes?"

Si Yuan took out a peculiar looking talisman and showed it to her. Mei couldn't help but notice it had an awful lot of circles and squiggly lines.

"This is a Sunspot Talisman. Traditionally, it's been used by wood cultivators to absorb qi from the sun better, to aid their cultivation," he said. "Normally, the energy would be directly absorbed into the meridians, so no tanning would occur. But I can modify it to directly apply it to your skin as well, which should tan very evenly, even with the sect robes obscuring."

"Okay."

"Just attach the talisman to your sect robes, and it will function naturally. It should function for several years, as long as you take good care of it."

"Okay."

Huh, she got the impression talismans were 1 use items.

The was silence for a bit.

"So do you want it?"

"How much is it?"

"50 Jade."

Hnnn...

Grumpily, she put 50 jade on the table.

"Good."

Si Yuan took out a piece of white cloth, a pair of scissors, several spools and needles, then quickly began sewing with all 4 hands. In less than a minute, the talisman was complete. It looked about the same as the paper talisman she was just shown, but with another smaller talisman attached to it.

"You can take off the auxiliary talisman if you want it to function as a regular Sunspot Talisman. That is, without the tanning properties."

The asura demonstrated by pulling the smaller talisman off, then reattaching it like a magnet. He then pasted it on the shoulder of her sect robes. To her surprise, the cloth talisman fused into the cloth, becoming unnoticeable. She pulled at it, and it came off easily.

"You can put it on the underside of your robes if you're afraid of it falling off."

"Thanks..."

Mei wasn't sure how she felt about paying so much for something he just created in under a minute. Was it really even of good quality? What if it fell apart in just a few days?